


Detect

by twilight_shades



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Allusions to Adult/Minor Relationship, Alternate Universe - Pre-Series Canon Divergence, Assorted Supernatural Beings, Fake Psychic Powers, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Referenced Accidental Self-Immolation, referenced attempted murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 05:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13001157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilight_shades/pseuds/twilight_shades
Summary: Derek is a fake psychic (that’s an accident).  Stiles goes to work for him (that’s deliberate).   Stiles is pretty good at figuring things out (that’s alarming).  Derek is pretty slow at figuring himself out (that’s unsurprising).





	Detect

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Do not own. Complete fiction.

Derek accidentally becomes a psychic when he’s a teenager. And it’s all Uncle Peter’s fault. Well, okay, it’s a little bit Derek’s fault. It’s just, the little girl who goes missing, she’s a friend of his little sister Cora’s, over at the house often enough that he knows her scent. And when he picks up a trail, he can’t not follow it. He doesn’t really think of the consequences of leading the police to her, at least not until the have him at the station, questioning how he knew how to find her. They seem to suspect him, even though they have someone in custody and he was in school when she was taken. It’s not like he’s going to tell them he’s a werewolf. That’s when Peter tells everyone he’s a psychic. 

“What are you doing?” Derek asks incredulously, speaking too softly for human ears to catch.

“Getting you out of this. Just go with it,” Peter answers just as quietly.

Of course, most of the department is skeptical, but then Derek ‘proves’ it by asking Deputy Travers if she’s had that heart murmur checked out, revealing what several people had for lunch, and congratulating Deputy Espinoza on his wife’s pregnancy (Derek hadn’t actually meant to eavesdrop on their phone conversation of her telling him that the doctor had confirmed it, he just been trying to figure out how much trouble he was actually in). When everything checks out, people look a lot less skeptical (and a lot more spooked).

Later, Peter seems to find the whole thing terribly amusing. Derek’s parents are a little wary of the situation, but proud of Derek for helping. Laura teases him, of course. Malia, his cousin, is intrigued by it, coming up with other ways for him to display his ‘powers’. Cora, though, thinks he’s a hero. 

~~~

He helps the sheriff’s department out a couple of more times. He doesn’t know why, he just can’t seem to say no. It’s weird because there’s something about the new sheriff, Stilinski, that makes Derek think that he doesn’t buy the psychic thing at all. But he doesn’t seem to think Derek has anything to do with whatever criminal activities they’re trying to stop. And he uses Derek’s ‘abilities’ only when time is of the essence or they have exhausted all other leads. The sheriff seems to want his department to do what they were hired to do, but won’t let that get in the way of using Derek as a resource when necessary. Derek respects that.

It’s supposed to be kept quiet, but somehow he gets a reputation. So, school kind of sucks. He’s always been a bit of a loner, but now people stare and whisper - some people anyway, not everyone. It just makes his life a little harder than before, which he really didn’t need. And then the whole thing with Kate happens. That’s supposed to be kept quiet, too. But it’s pretty hard to keep quiet about a person trying to set a house with a family in it on fire and somehow setting herself on fire. At least most people only know that she knew Derek and not how. In the end, all of that just pushes him into going off to college, even though he doesn’t really think it’s the place for him. And it does make his parents happy. He goes for a business degree because he has no clear idea of what he wants to do and it seems like a degree that could be useful in a lot of fields. But when he gets his degree and comes back to Beacon Hills, he ends up finding work as a mechanic in a garage.

The thing is, people in the sheriff’s department remember the whole psychic thing. And he gets pulled onto a couple of cases. Which causes him to get in late a few times and have to leave early more than once. Then, of course, other people want him to use his ‘gift’ to help them and keep showing up at the garage. Derek can’t say he’s really surprised when his boss comes to talk to him with an apologetic expression and he’s out of a job.

~~~

Derek follows Peter as he walks into the small office building. He has no idea why Peter, realtor extraordinaire, wants his opinion on this office space. The building is in a nice location in a quiet neighborhood, not terribly far away from the town center, but nestled back near the woods. The small office suite Peter shows him has a front reception area, an inner office, a private restroom, and a tiny kitchenette area. It would be a good place for a small business. He tells Peter so and Peter smiles at him and tosses him the keys. Then, while he’s processing, Peter herds him out the front and pulls down a piece of paper that was concealing a small plaque beside the door into the suite. The plaque reads ‘Hale Consulting’. Derek has to give his uncle credit, if it had been something ostentatious or silly or a cliché fortune telling set up, Derek would have balked. Instead, Derek’s apparently a psychic consultant. 

There is paperwork to be done and furniture to be bought. And Derek’s not sure why, but the office seems to do a lot to ease some of the wariness of some of the people. It’s as if all they needed was a shroud of legitimacy. He doesn’t hire a receptionist or assistant or whatever because he’s not sure he needs one. So, Derek just gets a sofa for the outer office, but then his sisters and cousin gang up on him to make it more presentable, more professional. So, even though he doesn’t have a receptionist (he’s actually pretty sure Malia’s working up to asking him for the job), there’s a desk, a chair for the desk, and a phone. They also hassle him into a coffee table and two end tables for the sofa. 

There are people wanting his services (and it had been weird figuring out his fees), but it comes in fits and starts. There are a few people looking for lost pets (if it’s recent enough, Derek’s pretty good at tracking them down – unfortunately, more than a few of them are dead when he finds them), there are people who want to know if their spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend is cheating on them (Derek thinks it’s a little strange that they would hire a psychic for something like this, but, from what he gathers, some people see it as less clinical than hiring a private detective), and there people looking for stolen or lost items (Derek probably likes those the best). Sometimes, when he thinks he’s taking too long on a job, he’s afraid he’ll get called out or exposed for what he really is. Sometimes he takes jobs not knowing if he can figure out what’s going on, but too curious about the answers to turn them down - like figuring out who rearranges Mrs. Nettles’ garden gnomes in suggestive poses (Billy Gregory, two houses down from hers – very creative) or who uproots Mr. Quinn’s begonias at night (Mr. Quinn, who apparently likes to garden in his sleep).

Somehow, it works for Derek. Even though his people skills are… lacking. He used to try and make the effort, but every time someone got too close, there was sense memory of burning flesh, so he stopped trying. He can sort of fake flirt if it’s needed, but he always ends up feeling nauseated and disgusted with himself, so he avoids it if he can. Most people seem to attribute most of his antisocial behavior to his ‘gift’. And he gets to use some of his natural abilities to help people and that, that feels good. Derek completely understands, now, how his mother, as a wildlife specialist, and Laura, as a fish and game warden, feel such fulfillment in jobs that allow them to use some of their werewolf skills. Although Derek is pretty sure that at least some of Laura’s satisfaction comes from the fact that she gets to have some authority over hunters, even if they aren’t werewolf hunters.

~~~

Derek’s having a bad day. Already, he’d had to tell a little girl that her cat wouldn’t be coming back (looking for cats always puts him a little on edge anyway – most don’t react well to werewolves and Derek is sure the other ones are planning something). He’d also had to tell Mrs. Isley that Mr. Isley is cheating on her. With a lot of different people. Honestly, almost all of the suspected infidelity cases end badly, mostly because they have a reason to suspect it. There was one that turned out to be a surprise proposal and another that was a surprise birthday party. But, generally, someone being secretive and lying doesn’t turn out well. And sometimes it’s worse than someone cheating, like the woman with a brain tumor who didn’t want her husband to know about her diagnosis and the subsequent follow-up medical appointments or the guy who’d been embezzling.

A teenage boy sort of stumbles himself into Derek’s office and sits down in the chair in front of Derek’s desk, putting his backpack down on the floor beside him. He turns bright brown eyes on Derek and says, “Hey, hi. I didn’t see anyone out front, so I just came back. This place is pretty nice. I kind of thought it would be all velvet curtains and crystal balls or something, but this is, like, professional.”

Derek frowns. The kid seems a little familiar, but Derek can’t quite tell why. And there’s something striking about him, something that makes Derek hyper-aware of him. “What do you want?” Derek asks flatly. 

“Wow, you are super customer friendly, aren’t you? Anyway, um, I’m Stiles. Stilinski. My dad’s the sheriff. I guess you’ve worked together.”

That would explain the familiarity. Derek’s probably smelled Stiles’ scent on the sheriff. But there isn’t much of the sheriff’s scent on Stiles. Derek nods.

“So, uh, my mom, she, um, she died.”

“I’m not a medium,” Derek says, trying for apologetic, but ending up mostly gruff.

“Oh, yeah, no, I didn’t mean- She had a locket and I keep it with me, but I can’t find it. I’ve looked everywhere and I heard you’re pretty good at finding things. I can pay. Can you help me? I really want it back.”

“When was the last time you remember having it and when did it go missing?”

“Okay, right down to business then. I had it the day before yesterday. In the morning. And then yesterday morning, I noticed it was gone. I have looked everywhere – the school, my house, my Jeep.”

Derek pushes a notepad and a pen at Stiles. “Write down every place that you were between those times. And a contact number.”

“Okay, yeah, right, I can do that.” Stiles takes the notepad and starts writing.

Derek takes the opportunity to study Stiles. Stiles murmurs to himself as he writes, twists in his chair, fidgets, bounces his leg. Derek wonders if he’s physically capable of being still.

“Done.” Stiles hands over the notepad.

“What does it look like?”

“I have a picture,” Stiles chirps. He pulls his backpack up and into his lap and digs through it. He pulls out a picture and gives it to Derek. “Could you make sure to give it back when you’re done?”

Derek takes the picture with a nod. The picture shows a pretty woman with brown hair and bright brown eyes wearing a locket and smiling happily at the camera. “I need something of yours. A piece of clothing that you’ve worn recently, but haven’t washed, will work.”

Stiles gives him a confused look.

“So I can get your vibe from it.” Derek almost grimaces when he says vibe, but his clients seem to expect him say things like that and it’s not like he wants to say scent.

Stiles nods agreeably and then his eyes light up. He puts his backpack down and stands suddenly. He strips off the plaid over-shirt he’s wearing and thrusts it out. “Will this work?”

Derek takes the shirt and says, “Yes.”

“Did you need anything else? Oh, did you need, like, a retainer fee?”

Usually, Derek does get something upfront and he reminds his clients that there’s no guarantee he’ll find anything, but he doesn’t this time. “No.”

“Um, okay.”

“I’ll let you know when I find something.” If, Derek should have said if.

Stiles smiles. “Thanks. Like, really. Um, okay, I’ll be going then. Bye.” Stiles grabs his backpack and trips a little as he leaves the room.

~~~

Derek actually finds the locket fairly quickly once he gets a chance to go out and look the next day (an urgent case with the police had come up only a few minutes after Stiles had left his office). So, he leaves a message on Stiles’ voicemail and tries to decide whether he should take on a case that involves a communal office refrigerator and missing lunches. It feels like a joke, but the guy who’d called had seemed extremely passionate about his missing meals. He’s not entirely sure he has the time. With each successful case, he gets more clients.

Several things happen in quick succession – an insistent couple shows up, two deputies come by, and then the phone starts ringing and won’t seem to stop. Everyone is talking over one another and the phone rings four times before a pause and then starts ringing again, someone apparently not wanting to leave a voicemail. Derek is ready to kick everyone out and rip the phone out of the wall when Stiles walks in. He looks at the couple and then the deputies, all of them arguing about whose problem is more urgent. Stiles raises his eyebrows at Derek and Derek just shrugs in exasperation and then glares at the still ringing phone. 

Stiles skirts around the deputies and picks up the handset, wraps his hand around the mouthpiece and very loudly says, “Hey!” to the arguing foursome. Everyone goes quiet and looks at him. He uncovers the mouthpiece and says, “Hale Consulting, please hold,” into it and then presses a button on the base. He puts the handset down and points at the couple, “Anyone missing or dead?”

They both look a little taken aback. One of the women shakes her head.

Stiles points at the deputies. “Anyone missing or dead?”

One of the deputies, Klein, by his nametag, says, “Nope.”

Stiles points back at the couple. “Anyone hurt?”

“No,” the other woman says.

Stiles points at the deputies again. “Anyone hurt?”

Deputy Klein nods soberly.

“Okay, then. Mr. Hale will talk to the deputies first and you can wait out in the reception area with me while he does,” Stiles says to the couple.

The couple doesn’t look happy about it, but they go with Stiles when he herds them out of Derek’s office. He turns to give Derek a half-smile before he closes the door, leaving Derek with just the two deputies. It doesn’t take long for the deputies to fill him in on a situation at a construction worksite that had initially been dismissed by the workers as pranks, but had escalated quickly into sabotage that had left two workers injured. Derek makes arrangements to meet someone at the construction site in two hours. The deputies leave and then Derek talks to the couple. May Olson and Grace Yarrow tell Derek about the house they had just moved into a few weeks ago. They tell him about the weird noises and the strange patterns on the floors and how they notice things have been shifted around when they’re not there. And Derek’s not a medium, but both women seem to want him to disprove the house is being haunted, so he takes the case. Finally, Derek’s left with just Stiles.

Stiles is sitting at the reception desk in the outer office. He’s got earbuds in and is listening to music that Derek doesn’t recognize. He’s reading a textbook and using a highlighter on it. Watching him, Derek’s not entirely sure Stiles understands the purpose of highlighting. Stiles jumps a little when he realizes Derek’s there. Derek jerks his head towards his office and turns back, expecting Stiles to follow. He does, but first Derek gets to hear him drop his textbook on the floor, hear him pick it up and stuff it in his backpack, hear him drop something else and pick it up. Stiles finally comes into the office and gracelessly sprawls in a chair in front of Derek’s desk. He pushes a piece of paper across the desk. Derek frowns and takes it.

“It’s the dude on the phone. I figured since I put him on hold, I could at least take down some information. He was really, um, forceful,” Stiles says.

“Thanks,” Derek says curtly.

“You know, that word is actually supposed to express gratitude and when you say it in a tone with zero warmth or friendliness, it kind of defeats the purpose,” Stiles says with a smile.

Derek stares at him, not sure what to say to that. He gives up trying to figure it out and opens the upper right drawer and pulls out the locket and chain and sets it down in front of Stiles.

Stiles scoops it up. “Oh, man, you found it! You didn’t say in your message, so I wasn’t sure. Wow, thank you so much! You don’t know how much I- Just, thank you.”

Derek nods, a little taken aback at his effusiveness.

“Where did you find it?”

Derek gives a half-smirk. “In a bush. Under your bedroom window. Where it might fall if someone was sneaking in or out of that window.”

Stiles goes red. “I, uh, I don’t, I’m sure that happened when I opened the window to greet the morning. You know, the way someone does in old musicals. Wait, how did you know it was my bedroom? Oh, right, psychic. How does that work, exactly? Or is it unexplainable? Inexplicable?”

“I climbed up to the window because I got a sense of someone doing that. Must have been a squirrel,” Derek says dryly. “The bedroom just… felt like you.”

“Huh.”

Derek studies Stiles while trying to work out the best way to say what had been percolating in the back of his head all throughout his meetings with the deputies and the ‘haunted’ house couple. “Do you want a job?” he asks bluntly.

“Me? You want _me_ to work for you?”

“I’m not good with people. And I’ve been getting busier. I need someone to answer phones, go through messages, and organize my schedule. But mostly, I need someone to deal with people when I can’t. The salary wouldn’t be much more than minimum wage. Do you want the job?”

“Well, I actually just quit the lacrosse team because I was tired of either being on the bench or getting knocked down by Jackson Whittemore. I thought Scott would probably talk me back into it or, you know, my dad’s disappointed face would.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s a yes. I mean, my dad can’t be too disappointed if I have a job instead, right? But, so after school then?”

“Yes. Until six or six-thirty, except Wednesdays, and from ten to four on Saturdays. The office is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. But if something urgent comes up I may need you to come in and do some…”

“Dealing with people?”

“Yes.”

“I can do that. So, yeah, okay. I’m your receptionist. Assistant. Receptant? Assistionist?” Stiles scrunches up his face.

“Assistant will do.”

“Okay. Oh, hey, what do I owe you? For the locket?”

“Nothing. Call it… a signing bonus.”

“Cool.”

~~~

The next day, after Stiles fills out his paperwork, Derek is going to send him home while he goes to check out the ‘haunted’ house (the construction site sabotage case had been resolved pretty easily last night – the police had someone in custody, having found some missing worksite equipment in plain sight in the car Derek had led them to). Stiles begs Derek to take him to the house, having heard some of the weird details. Derek rolls his eyes, but lets Stiles tag along.

Derek can hear something the second he gets out of the car, but he can’t place it. Stiles is babbling about economics, following closely behind Derek as he makes his way up to the front door. Derek unlocks it with the key the couple had given him (they were unsettled enough by the happenings to move into a hotel until he came and examined the house). Derek takes one step in and stops, Stiles bumping into him. He herds Stiles back out and closes and locks the door.

Stiles is looking at him, bewildered. “Dude, what’s up? You barely stepped foot in the place.”

“Don’t need to.”

“Really? You can tell what the problem is already?”

“Snakes.”

“Snakes?”

“In the walls.”

“A lot of them?” Stiles asks hesitantly.

“Dozens, maybe hundreds.”

Stiles shudders a little.

Derek has nothing against snakes, but understands the impulse.

Stiles pulls out his phone and starts tapping at it.

“What are you doing?” Derek asks.

“The department has an animal removal guy – I’m looking up his number so we can give it to May and Grace.”

“May and Grace?”

“You know, the couple who owns the house?”

“Right. Olson and Yarrow.”

“Their hotel isn’t that far away. We should stop by before you drop me off.”

“Or I could just call them.”

“Or you could listen to the person you hired to deal with people.”

Derek scowls at Stiles, but he doesn’t back down. “Fine.”

~~~

Stiles works out well. So well, in fact, that Derek’s pretty sure there are a fair number of people that wait until Stiles is there to come in to the office. And since the office is only open during the afternoon anyway with mornings and the occasional evening set aside for being out investigating, that means a late afternoon rush. But Derek is less tense, not having to spend as much time with clients. And even though Derek sometimes gets irritated by Stiles’ need to talk, Derek finds he’s much more tolerant of Stiles and his quirks than he is of anyone else barring family. Actually, Derek is more tolerant of Stiles than he is of some of his family, too. Malia’s sulking about Derek hiring someone else, even though she apparently knows and likes Stiles. Most of the rest of the family had all found excuses (some very thin) to stop by and check Stiles out. Stiles hadn’t seemed to mind, chatting happily at anyone who came to the office.

His family really seems to like Stiles. Maybe a little too much. Laura is around all the time, stopping by with snacks as they close the office most days. It’s definitely not for Derek. She spends her time talking to Stiles, gently flirting with him. It’s very weird in a lot of ways, not the least of which is her being his sister, but also because whenever he’s been the unfortunate witness to her… interactions with someone she’s attracted to, she usually goes after what she wants aggressively. Of course, if she’d been at all aggressive with Stiles, he might have had to do something about it, like embarrass her horribly (a zero-sum game, she always hit back, harder), or worse, tell their mother. He hasn’t tattled on Laura since he was eight (okay, fifteen), but he’d do it. As it is, Derek finally decides he needs to actually talk to Laura about whatever it is she’s doing.

Derek listens as Stiles talks to Laura about his Chemistry teacher as Stiles powers down his computer and locks his desk. Derek remembers Mr. Harris as being kind of an ass during school, had sort of hated him until the man had tipped the police off about Kate. He’s apparently still kind of an ass, but Derek can’t hate him. Derek waits for Stiles to leave for the night before talking to Laura. “He’s sixteen, Laura.”

Laura looks at him, faintly amused. “Almost seventeen.”

“In five months. And even then, still too young.”

“According to whom?”

“The state of California. For whom you work.”

“True.”

“Or how about his father the sheriff? Someone I sometimes work for. Or how about Stiles himself? Stiles, who has been on exactly one date with a girl he had a crush on for years that ended with her getting back together with the douchebag that Stiles quit the lacrosse team to get away from.”

“Wow, little brother, I can’t believe you know that.”

Derek grimaces a little. “Stiles talks a lot. About everything.”

“Yes, but you _paid attention_.”

“So?”

“Nothing, I just find it interesting. Anyway, isn’t it kind of sad? That nobody seems to see what worth he has? That he always seems so surprised when I flirt? And he likes it.”

“Of course he likes it. You’re… you.”

“Aw, Derek, was that a compliment? Seriously, though, it’s just flirting. So far.”

Derek actually growls at that.

Laura looks as surprised as he feels, but her expression quickly morphs into gleeful amusement. “And it’s not like there’s anyone around to be _jealous_ , is there?”

Derek glares at her and stalks back to his office and closes the door. He’s not brooding, no matter what Laura says laughingly through the door.

~~~

Stiles has been lurking in the doorway of Derek’s office for almost ten minutes without saying anything, which is unusual to say the least. Derek finally gets tired of waiting for whatever it is Stiles wants to say, but is reluctant to bring up. “What?”

Stiles starts a little. “I… nothing. Never mind.”

Derek stops looking through his email and looks up at Stiles, whose heart is racing. “Spit it out.”

“Um, my friend Scott? You know, I’ve told you about him?”

Stiles has told Derek about everything. Derek could probably answer any of Stiles’ security questions for password resets. Derek nods.

“He wants to come visit the office.”

Derek doesn’t care if Stiles has visitors as long as it doesn’t interfere with his work, which Stiles knows, so there must be more to this. “And?”

“He wants to bring his girlfriend along.”

Derek is confused as to why this would matter. “So?”

“Well, like I told you, she’s really nice and all, but I never even, it never occurred to me, not until we were talking about it and she asked if I’d ever mentioned her last name. She’s, uh, Allison, her last name is Argent. Kate Argent was her aunt.”

Derek feels like he can’t breathe for a moment. Cora and Malia had mentioned something about an Argent in their class, but Derek had sort of mentally checked out after they said it and not paid any attention to any details. He had then proceeded to pretend that the Argents never came back and when that hadn’t been viable, he had only kept it to the barest minimum of contact or conversation he could.

“You know what? Never mind. It was a terrible idea. Forget I asked,” Stiles says, the words almost tumbling over each other in his haste to get them out.

Derek can’t imagine what his expression must look like for Stiles to look so anxious. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “No, it’s fine.”

Stiles gives him a highly dubious look. “It is?”

“Just make sure she clears it with her father.”

“Clears it?”

“Our families are not… on the best of terms.”

“Right, right. I’ll make sure.”

It’s anticlimactic when Scott and Allison show up. Allison doesn’t look anything like Kate. And Derek can tell that she doesn’t know that he’s werewolf. He’d wondered if her parents were training her, but if they are, they’re being subtle about it. He wonders when her parents will tell her and if Allison will become a hunter. She really does seem nice, not the first adjective he’d use for anyone else in that family. Chris Argent seems fair, or at least, determined to stick to the code. And Victoria Argent has been perfectly cordial, if cold, whenever there’s a meeting between the Hale pack and the Argents. There’s something about her, though, that sets him on edge, nothing concrete he can point to or anything, just this impression of an air of viciousness about her. Derek is sure they would be ruthless in eliminating a perceived threat. He hopes Allison stays far away from the life. 

~~~

Derek lets Stiles handle most of the social niceties when meeting clients. Derek doesn’t usually allow him sit in on the police investigations, although Stiles is very good at weaseling details from Derek (Derek would feel bad about it, but Stiles also tricks them out of his dad and all of his deputies). Derek lets him deal with most of the civilian resolutions, except for the pets that come to a bad end – those just make Stiles sad and quiet, so Derek deals with them. Actually, Derek always had more issues with the happy endings – he likes that he helps, but compliments, effusive thanks, or people trying to hug him make him very uncomfortable. Although he does kind of like it when Stiles is impressed. Maybe that’s why he allows Stiles to come along on some evening investigations. Not the police ones and not the infidelity ones, but some of the lost object ones, some of the nuisance ones, and some of the really odd ones. 

Stiles really likes the odd ones – all sorts of weird animals turnings up in Mr. Petrov’s yard (they are apparently hallucinations – a side effect of Mr. Petrov’s prescription medication), lights being turned on and off and doors being unlocked and opened in a marine biology lab when everyone has left for the night (it’s because of a smart octopus that sneaks out of it’s tank at night), Mrs. Viller’s shed keeps getting rearranged and some of her Christmas ornaments are missing (that one turns out to be fae, brownies to be exact – Derek blames it on raccoons and later trades mylar balloons for the ornaments and asks the brownies to please stop cleaning the shed).

Laura continues to be a pest. And she seems to up her game when Derek’s in the room with her and Stiles (which Derek only knows because he listens in when they’re in the reception area and he’s in his office – he knows he shouldn’t, that it’s creepy, but, somehow, that doesn’t stop him from doing it). It’s driving him up the wall. It’s making him more aggressive when they’re wolfed out and hunting or just running. Laura finds both his aggression and the reason for it hilarious.

Other than the whole Laura thing and why he’s so annoyed by it, the only real problem with Stiles working for him is that Stiles is very smart. He’s very good at figuring thing out. Stiles and his dad don’t look that much alike, but some of their expressions are the same, like the one they make when they’re skeptical of something. Derek is extra cautious when he takes Stiles with him because he notices a lot (Derek’s pretty sure he didn’t buy the raccoons thing, but Stiles didn’t call him on it). Derek’s had a lot of practice subtly sniffing out scents and tuning into distant sounds, but sometimes he’s sure that Stiles can tell what he’s doing.

~~~

Derek listens to Stiles behind him as he follows Mrs. Sitka’s scent trail to try to find her missing keys. The ground is uneven and Stiles has been struggling with his footing (sometimes Stiles reminds him so much of a puppy that hasn’t grown into his paws). Mrs. Sitka traipsed all around this area of the forest for a nature walk with a group. Derek hopes the keys are here because the only place on her list that he hasn’t been to yet is the bowling alley. Derek hates the bowling alley – loud, lots of people, the pervasive smell of wax and foot spray. Stiles is talking about some television show about fairy tales or something and Derek’s acknowledging grunts every once in a while are enough to keep Stiles happily prattling on. Derek’s only slightly paying attention to the actual words until Stiles says something about a wolf and then Derek turns to look at Stiles. Stiles doesn’t seem at all surprised to have Derek’s full focus on him. Stiles is looking at him interestedly. Derek drops his gaze from Stiles’ and catches a glimpse of something shiny almost hidden by a tree root. Derek goes over to it and finds a set of keys.

“Did you know there’s a patron saint of lost things? Or maybe of people looking for lost things. Anyway, it’s Saint Anthony. Do you think there’s anything in that? Saints, I mean?” Stiles asks.

Derek shrugs.

“Do you think you’re blessed? Like, is your gift from somewhere or something? Or is it just natural, do you think?”

Derek feels caught out somehow, even though he’s gotten questions like this before. “I… don’t know.”

“Hmm. Did you also know there’s a patron saint of coin collectors and thieves? Not the same one, though.”

Derek can breathe easily again as that leads Stiles off on a tangent about saints and miracles. Derek can’t figure out if Stiles knows something, is just fishing for information, or if it’s just Derek being paranoid. He’s not paying much attention to what Stiles is saying until Stiles mentions something about Laura and something she’d said.

“If she makes you uncomfortable, I can make her stop,” Derek says and winces a little at how abrupt it sounds. He’d only meant to say something if Stiles had brought it up first, but some part of him obviously felt the need to override that decision.

“What? What do you mean? Oh. It’s not like she’s serious or anything. I mean, she’s just, like, play flirting.”

Derek frowns at Stiles. “I think if you responded, you’d see just how serious she could be.” Because, yes, Laura is playing, a little, but Derek knows she sees the same things in Stiles as he does.

“Yeah, whatever,” Stiles says disbelievingly.

And this, Derek realizes, is what Laura was talking about when she brought up Stiles’ sense of worth. Derek doesn’t know what to say to make Stiles believe and even if he knew the words, there’s no guarantee he could get them to come out right.

~~~

Stiles is talking to someone in the outer office when suddenly his heart starts thundering, though his voice stays calm. Derek peers out carefully and sees that the guy from the construction site sabotage case is there and he has a gun pointed at Stiles. Derek must move or make some sort of sound because all of a sudden the guy swings toward him and the gun goes off. Derek rushes him and knocks him out.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” Stiles is saying as he comes up to him. His hands hover around Derek. “Is it okay if I touch you?”

Derek frowns and nods.

Stiles pulls at his shirt and says haltingly, “Well, that’s healing, uh, really quickly.”

Derek finally breaks his stare from Stiles’ face and looks down, finally noticing the blood where he was apparently shot through his side. “It must have just nicked me.”

Stiles gives a half laugh and says very disbelievingly, “Okay.”

“No, really, barely even touched me.”

“Yeah. I’m going to go get a shirt and something to tie this guy up with from my Jeep before the police get here.”

“Okay.”

Stiles gestures at Derek’s face. “You might want to get rid of the fangs and glowing eyes.” Then he waves his fingers. “And claws, too.” Then he hurries out of the office.

Derek closes his eyes. It had felt so natural to go to his beta form while protecting Stiles, he hadn’t even noticed. He opens his eyes and sighs, looking down to double check that his claws have receded.

Stiles is back pretty quickly. He throws the shirt at Derek. “You should change and bring the shirt you’re wearing back to me. Also, you should find the bullet and open that window,” Stiles says pointing. He kneels down and starts tying the still unconscious guy up with bungee cords.

“What?” Derek asks, confused.

“Go,” Stiles orders.

So Derek does. He changes his shirt and brings his bloody shirt to Stiles. He opens the window Stiles pointed to, then looks for the bullet and he finds it near the fake palm plant (actually, he sniffs it out). Stiles makes grabby hands at it, so Derek hands it over. Stiles whisks out of the office and gets back in just before police arrive.

Derek watches in amazement as Stiles talks and talks at the officers that come, leading them in the direction he wants them to go, not actually saying anything that’s specifically untrue. The officers end up drawing their own conclusions (that the bullet went out the window, that the guy was delusional, that Derek had stupidly tried to take on an armed man, but had been lucky). They feed the story that Stiles had (mis)led them to, back to Derek and Stiles (Derek is pretty sure that’s exactly what they’ve been trained _not_ to do, but Stiles had looped them around and around), ever more convinced of its truth. They finally wrap it up and leave, telling Stiles they’ll try to downplay it a little for his dad, when he gets back to the station. Stiles winces, like he knows it’s not going to do much good.

“We’re pretty lucky, my dad and Parrish are out at the mine, it can play havoc with communications. Otherwise, they would’ve been here, too. And my dad may not be able to tell which part is missing, but he knows when I’m not telling the whole truth. Parrish can sometimes tell, too.”

“You do this often?”

“When it’s necessary.”

Derek raises his eyebrows.

“Hey, Mr. Wolfman, ‘psychic’, you want to talk about deception? We can do that,” Stiles says sarcastically.

Derek winces. “Look, Stiles, I didn’t mean to-“

“Shut up, yes, you did. Mean to, I mean. Of course you kept it a secret. Well, the psychic thing is a little hard to understand.”

“It was sort of an accident. I needed an explanation that wasn’t werewolf senses and my uncle came up with psychic.”

“Huh. So, what can you do? There’s the fast healing, and the fangs and claws and glow-y eyes and extra hair, and strong sense of smell, yeah?”

Derek nods. “Strong sense of hearing. Much stronger than a human. There are other things, but not all werewolves can do them.”

“Cool, like a superhero.”

“Not really.”

“Okay, see, I just had a gun pointed at me and I think I’ve been pretty cool about the whole creature of the night thing, let me have this.”

“Fine,” Derek says and then he makes his voice as deep as he can and says, “I’m Batman.”

Stiles cackles, looking delighted.

~~~

Stiles has to check in by phone with his dad a couple of times when he’s at work. Stiles seems to think it won’t last all that long, but Derek’s not so sure. Derek had gotten an earful from the sheriff. Derek had apologized, then the sheriff had sighed and apologized, too. It seems the sheriff was feeling guilty that they hadn’t held the guy after he was arrested and charged for the sabotage. Derek doesn’t think the sheriff had much say in the guy getting bail, but he doubts that matters much. Derek thinks the phone calls and a few squad cars driving by will be happening for at least a few weeks.

Stiles seems to have no qualms about Derek being a werewolf, but he does have questions, so many questions. Derek finally sends Stiles to Derek’s mom, who had not been anywhere near as concerned or surprised about Derek revealing himself to Stiles as Derek would have thought. Stiles looks triumphant as he heads off and Derek is suddenly sure that’s what Stiles was angling for the whole time. 

Just sending him off is a mistake. Because Peter is there. And, of course, Stiles catches his attention. Derek’s uncle already lives to make Derek’s life difficult, he didn’t need this, too.

~~~

Derek is going to lose his mind. Now, if it isn’t Laura flirting with Stiles, it’s Peter. To be fair, Peter is a lot more subtle, but he’s still doing it. And Malia and Cora have taken to hanging out with Stiles at school and sometimes in the evenings. Derek knows yelling “Mine!” and stealing Stiles away from all of them would be really immature, but he kind of wants to do it anyway. He feels like he’s missing something, too. His family has never been hostile or unwelcoming to others, but they are usually much more wary about outsiders, even ones who know their secrets (sometimes especially ones who know their secrets).

Stiles seems a little baffled by all the attention. As they’re walking around the Gundersons’ backyard trying to figure out the cause of the odd light, Stiles tells Derek that most people just tolerate him and don’t actively seek out his company like Derek’s family. 

Derek’s not sure how to respond to that, but feels like he should say something. “They like you,” he says abruptly after wrestling with it for a few moments.

Stiles looks at him and says, “I know, I just don’t get why.”

“You’re…” Derek can’t seem to get any words out.

“I’m…?”

“Nice.” Derek cringes. That was not at all what he meant to say and just wrong besides.

Stiles tilts his head and shuts one eye, peering at Derek with the other, his whole demeanor proclaiming doubt. “Nice?”

“That’s not what I- I didn’t- No, not nice. Funny. Smart. Reliable. Adaptable.”

Stiles opens his eye and shakes his head. “It’s, uh, well, _nice_ of you to say. And I might even believe you if it didn’t sound like someone was pulling your teeth out with pliers.”

“You are so annoying.”

“Exactly. So, you see my point.”

“ _Our_ kind of annoying.”

“What?”

“You fit. With us.” It’s not quite what Derek was trying to say, but it’s close enough.

Stiles ducks his head and smiles a little. He jumps a little when a will-o’-the-wisp suddenly pops up beside him.

Derek steadies Stiles so he doesn’t actually fall over before talking to the apparition. The will-o’-the-wisp is soon on its way, given directions (apparently it had gotten very lost and the Gundersons’ abstract yard sculpture has an odd resonance that it had been drawn to). 

Stiles spins the Gundersons a tale of ball lightning, the sculpture, and reflections that they seem to buy and they decide to take down the sculpture.

Derek is happy because it was resolved so easily, but is left wondering why the will-o’-the-wisp showed itself so directly to Stiles.

~~~

Derek wakes suddenly, convinced something is wrong. He checks the house, but everything seems to fine, everyone sleeping, nobody hanging around outside planning to set the house on fire. He can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong, though. He gets his phone, pulls up his contacts, and hesitates. It’s almost one in the morning and really not a time to call if it isn’t an emergency. The feeling pushes him forward and he makes the call. It goes to voicemail. He tries again and again, but Stiles doesn’t pick up. Derek leaves a terse voice message to call him back, but with every minute that passes without Stiles calling, Derek gets more tense. Derek isn’t sure what to do. With what Stiles has told him, Derek knows that Stiles often stays up past midnight and that he keeps his phone charged and at least in vibrate mode at all times, worried that there will be an emergency call about his father. Derek gets dressed, telling himself that Stiles’ phone battery has just died or he’s deeply asleep or he lost his phone. He drives over to Stiles’ house, still telling himself these things. The Stilinski house is dark and silent, Derek can’t hear anybody in it and Stiles’ Jeep isn’t there.

Derek’s phone rings. He answers, “Stiles?”

“No,” Sheriff Stilinski’s voice says. “Mind telling me why you called my son’s phone five times at one in the morning?”

“I, I had a bad feeling. Is Stiles there? Is he okay?”

There’s a long pause, then the sheriff says, “I think you had better join me. I’m on Old Mill Road, past the Miwok turnoff.”

The feeling of dread grows. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Derek disconnects the call.

Derek drives over, slightly faster than he should and sees the flashing lights as soon as he gets to Old Mill Road. He pulls up behind one of the police cars and gets out. He goes looking for the sheriff and then spies Stiles’ Jeep. He finds the sheriff standing near the Jeep.

“Derek,” Sheriff Stilinski says.

Derek looks at the Jeep, it doesn’t look damaged and he doesn’t smell blood. That doesn’t necessarily mean much, so he asks, “Was there an accident? Is Stiles okay?”

The sheriff looks at him soberly and says, “One of the patrol cars found the Jeep abandoned with the driver’s side door open and Stiles’ phone in the footwell not long ago. I don’t know how you do what you do and frankly I don’t care, but I need you do it right now and find my son. I’m not saying this as the sheriff because as of a few minutes ago I am temporarily relieved of duty, I am saying this a father. Find my son, please.”

Derek nods and walks around the Jeep, not touching anything or getting in anyone’s way. He smells Stiles and something else that’s vaguely familiar, though he can’t place it. He follows the scent trail into the woods, peripherally aware that both Stilinski and Deputy Parrish are following him. He pauses and listens, but he doesn’t hear anything. He keeps following the scent trail.

It’s strange, there seems to be several false scent trails (the scent is just ever so slightly off). Derek sticks to the true one, but goes slowly, now expecting a trap of some sort. Up ahead, there’s a clearing and it seems unnaturally bright. Derek stops. He could lead the sheriff and the deputy off somewhere and contact his mother and uncle – they have a lot more experience than Derek dealing with other supernaturals. It would be the smart thing to do, but Derek can’t leave Stiles with whatever took him for longer than he needs to. He steps into the clearing and all of the ambient sound cuts off, the only thing Derek can hear is himself. He can’t hear the wind or any animals, he can’t hear the crime scene in the distance, he can’t even hear Stilinski and Parrish. He turns to look for them and cannot see them.

“Don’t worry, Wolf,” says a voice. “They can’t see or hear what’s going on here, though if the younger one ever finds his potential, he could.”

Derek frowns and eyes the direction the voice seemed to come from. A figure steps out from behind a tree to the side and Derek turns toward it. He grimaces. It’s a satyr.

“Your boy is so very interesting, even addled,” the satyr says thoughtfully.

Derek growls.

“Peace, Wolf. He put up a fight, scrappy one he is, got a bit of a knock, he’ll be fine. Now, I have a simple task for you. All you have to do is find your boy. I’ve hidden him somewhere in these woods and once you find him, I’ll go.”

Stiles stumbles out from behind a tree that the satyr is standing in front of. He sees Derek and gives a weak wave. Derek looks at the satyr suspiciously.

“No tricks. Just find him.”

Derek’s doesn’t really believe him, but steps around him anyway and grabs Stiles gently by the arms. There’s a whisper of a feeling all over as soon as Derek makes contact that Derek associates with fae magic. He keeps hold of Stiles but looks back at the satyr with a frown.

The satyr looks surprised and then intrigued. “Well, now, that’s interesting. Goodbye.” Then he disappears with an almost pop.

Derek scowls. Damn satyrs and their games. He looks at Stiles. Stiles looks like he’s having a little trouble focusing. “You okay?”

“My head hurts,” Stiles sighs and leans his forehead against Derek’s shoulder. Derek moves a hand up to cup the back of his neck and pulls pain from him.

“What? Oh, God, are you doing that? That’s awesome. Your mother said something about this, but I didn’t really think about how it would feel. Wow. Okay, I think you’d better stop, I was already kind of dizzy, now I’m feeling floaty, too.”

~~~

They keep Stiles at the hospital for observation for a few hours. Stiles tells his father and Parrish a pretty close version to what actually happen, only leaving out the satyr part, so Derek follows his lead. Sheriff Stilinski and Deputy Parrish seem really puzzled by the whole thing, unsurprisingly. Neither Derek nor Stiles have to feign their own confusion about what happened.

Derek tells his mother and Peter the whole story. Peter rolls his eyes when he hears that it was a satyr and even Derek’s mother, who is usually diplomatic, gives an exasperated sigh. Peter looks very speculative when he hears about the satyr’s “game” and what Derek did. Talia frowns and shoos Peter away.

“Derek, you know how much satyrs like their tricks and games. And they are good at concealment. Very good,” Talia says.

“Okay,” Derek says, trying to keep his skepticism off his face.

“Sometimes their tricks are just for fun. But sometimes they are a test.”

“A test?”

“The old stories about fae spiriting children away? Those aren’t all just stories. And sometimes it’s not a child, though more often than not, it is. Some people… stand out. And when certain sorts of fae happen across them, they take notice. By fae law, if a fae wants to take a person, they can choose among those who come to seek the person out and test them and if that chosen one fails, the fae gets to keep the person. These days, it doesn’t seem to happen that often, or perhaps they choose people who don’t have others who would look for them.”

“So, if I hadn’t found Stiles, that satyr would’ve kept him?” Derek asks, incredulous.

Talia grimaces. “He would have tried. There is a another way to challenge it, but it’s long and difficult and involves the fae court. The test, though, that has to do with worthiness. And the worthiness has to do with feelings.”

Derek frowns.

“I know you care about Stiles, but being able to find him so quickly… is unusual.” 

“Unusual.”

Talia gives him a soft smile. “I might be able to find your father as quickly.”

Derek looks at her blankly. After a long moment, he croaks out, “He’s barely seventeen.” Derek doesn’t know why he says it. His mother knows it very well, Peter, Laura, Cora, and Malia had had a surprise party for Stiles last week. Derek wasn’t one for parties, though he had gotten Stiles a gift (a Knott’s Berry Farm souvenir that Derek had tracked down that was like one that Stiles had had from a trip with his parents and once told Derek about).

“Yes,” Talia says calmly.

“I’m six years older than him.”

“Yes.”

“What do I do?” Derek asks in a small voice.

“Oh, Derek, I’m not sure what the best thing would be. I would usually advise talking, but…”

“I don’t want to put any pressure on Stiles if he wants something with me, make him think he has to wait, and we would be waiting, because I can’t, I just, I can’t. And he’s really stubborn and if he decided to wait for me, he would. And I couldn’t talk to the sheriff about it before I talked to Stiles. I guess I just wait.”

“You could talk to them both.”

Derek thinks about how uncomfortable that would be and makes a face.

“Honey, you should do what you think is best. I’m sorry I don’t have any words of wisdom to offer.”

Derek sighs. “It’s okay, Mom, I’ll figure it out.”

~~~

Derek does not figure it out. Stiles does. Derek shouldn’t be surprised.

“I did some research on satyrs,” Stiles says out the blue, one slow afternoon at work, a week and a half after his encounter with one.

Derek leans back from his laptop screen where he’d been looking at some new state regulations for small businesses and trying to figure out if they applied to his situation and how much of an issue it would be if he wasn’t in full compliance. He looks at Stiles where’s sprawled in the chair in front of Derek’s desk scrolling through something on his phone. When he looks up at Derek, Derek raises an eyebrow.

“Satyrs trick.”

Derek wonders why Stiles is stating the obvious. “Yes.”

“And test.”

Uh oh. The silence draws out for a very long moment before Derek asks in a carefully neutral tone, “Test?”

“Yep,” Stiles says, popping the ‘p’.

“Test what?”

“Oh, okay, so you’re just going to feign ignorance here, huh?”

“Stiles…”

“Derek.”

“I- What do you want me to say?”

“What do I want you to say? Hmm. I’d really like, ‘Stiles, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I don’t know what I’d do without you.’ But that’s not true. So maybe something like, ‘Stiles, I have feelings for you.’”

Derek’s frozen, put on the spot. “I, I can’t. You’re only- I’m too- Kate, Kate was older and I was a teenager and I- I can’t.”

Stiles is looking at Derek with soft eyes like he understands. “Okay,” he says, sounding resigned. Stiles’ face twists in sadness and defeat for a second before he shakes it off and gives Derek a half-smile. “Okay, so we’re just going to pretend this never happened.”

Derek’s quiet for a minute. “If it had, then those things, _all_ those things, they would be true.”

Stiles lights up. He licks his lips and asks, “And if I come to you, say about a year from now?”

“If you come to me, about a year from now, and it’s okay if you don’t, if you decide not to or you find someone, but if you come to me, I’ll have something I can say to you,” Derek says haltingly.

“Okay,” Stiles says, smiling softly.

“Okay,” Derek says, letting his lips curve up into a smile too.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you find any typos or if the format is messed up or if you think I need any tags.


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